on TV
What I'm watching on TV these days:
Lost
ABC / Wednesdays 9ET/8CT
I started watching this in the third season, after watching the first two seasons on DVD via Netflix. I'm not sure if the third season is going to be good or not. My favorite episodes is still the pilot.
My biggest issue with this type of series is that the writers set up mysteries that are so curious that a reasonable explanation is almost impossible. So they either remain unresolved or are resolved in an unsatisfying way.
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Battlestar Galactica
SciFi / Fridays 9ET/8CT
Going into the third season, a lot has changed in the show, preventing the writers from writing the sort of formulaic episodes that are the norm in most space operas. Maybe they've jumped the shark, but probably they've succeeded in sustaining the feeling of hopelessness and defeat that has defined the series since the Cylons launched a nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies.
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The Venture Bros.
Adult Swim / Sundays 10:30ET/9:30CT
Adult Swim cartoons range from mind-numbing to somewhat entertaining, with a few exceptions. The Venture Bros is one that I consistently download if I miss an episode. As I've mentioned before, this is a show that I should dislike, since there isn't a single character I admire. The shows main theme, failure, does tend to resonate:
Perhaps more telling, however, is the sense of societal failure. All around the Venture Compound one sees the artifacts of the Jet / Space Age — supersonic nuclear-powered jets, fantastic inventions and gleaming science. But, forty years later, those Jet Age relics are breaking down, and their promises (as well as the paradise that science and technology were to have ushered in) have all been broken. There is perhaps no better symbol of this than Gargantua One, a gigantic space station built by Doctor Jonas Venture, who dubbed it "the ninth wonder of the world". Intended to be a beacon of scientific advancement and hope for the future, by the present day the station has become completely abandoned except for two astronauts, a sex-starved Romanian woman with a disfigured face and an emasculated, middle-aged virgin. The station has fallen into disrepair, breaking down from only minor complications, and eventually crashes into Earth and explodes (ironically killing numerous members of Al Qaeda; the station's only success was a result of its being a failure). [source]
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